NewJeans faces a big challenge after changing its name, HYBE still holds the "tail"

The 5 members of K-Pop girl group NewJeans announced that they have changed their name to NJZ, ready for a re-debut under the new name at the upcoming ComplexCon Hong Kong 2025 music festival on March 21-23.

Talking about the name change, member Minji said, "We are very excited to step on stage for the first time as NJZ. This is a big moment for us. We look forward to fans joining us on this journey and showing the world the new music we've been eagerly waiting to share."

Along with the name change, the group also released images showing the new concept. It is unclear whether this will be a separate concept for the re-debut at ComplexCon Hong Kong 2025, or will mark the long-term development of the group. However, at least the concept partly explains why the group has been hidden all this time.

When they were NewJeans, the girls took the image of youth in the school garden, youthful, like the girls next door. However, becoming NJZ, they look much bolder, wearing ghostly red lenses, and naughty braided hair. This is another side of Y2K that NewJeans is pursuing.

Speaking to CNN, Hanni said the name change was the group's way of "turning challenges into more exciting opportunities." They will make their public debut under the new name NJZ at the global street fashion and culture festival ComplexCon, which takes place on March 23 in Hong Kong (China).

In particular, CNN noted that NJZ will introduce a new song at this concert event. "We're doing our best to get things back to normal soon," Hanni told CNN, not wanting her dispute with ADOR to "dominate her entire career."

However, Newjeans' name change to NJZ and participation in a major music festival took place as the group's dispute with the management company Ador and HYBE Group still fell apart. Member Hanni shared that she and the members are preparing a lot of things to be able to return to "normal".

The name NJZ is quite close to NewJeans, as an abbreviation. At one point, the group experimented with @jeanzforfree's Instagram account, but perhaps because the name was so different from NewJeans, the group finally chose NJZ. The three capital letters look extremely cool and strong, reflecting the group's new direction. Continuing to operate without the previous probation of the parent company, the NewJeans girls showed more generosity than before.

Currently, HYBE still holds the copyright to the name Newjeans. Revenue from music streaming, advertising from MVs, old advertising contracts with McDonald's, Apple, Coca-Cola,... will still belong to HYBE and all profits will also go to the group.

The only good luck is that the members have written credits on almost all of the group's songs (except Cookie and Hurt). Therefore, the girls can still perform these songs. They may even do what Taylor Swift did, which is to re-record songs from the New Jeans and launch a brand new studio version, so that they can profit from music streaming platforms later.

K-pop fans are used to disputes between idols and the management company, but it is rare for the entire group to unite against the management company. The last time a similar incident happened was in 2016, when Cube Entertainment insisted on not allowing the members of BEAST to use the name because they had left the company. After many unsuccessful negotiation attempts, the BEAST members were forced to change the group's name to HIGHLIGHT in order to continue their activities. After that, Cube Entertainment continued to make legal moves related to the ownership of the BEAST name, which significantly affected the group's activities.

NewJeans Helps HYBE Explode Sales Before Leaving, Creating an Unprecedented Record Trí Nhi15:53:49 27/02/2025According to Korean media, HYBE announced: After the breakthrough of becoming the first Korean entertainment company to surpass 2 trillion won in revenue in 2023, we will set a record again in 2024 with continuous growth in performance.